iPhone OS 3.1 Beta Released to Developers – MMS Options Are Back But Not Working Yet
The iPhone OS 3.1 beta firmware has been released to developers. So far, from what I can gather via reports at Gadgets on The Go and in the EIC forums, it sounds like this release may be mostly bug fixes.
A couple of changes that have been noted by various users are apparently much louder speaker volume and MMS options are back, although not yet working (in the US) as presumably we ‘re still waiting on AT&T to do their bit.
Hopefully that wrong icons bug is one of the things fixed by this update. I think I ‘m going to sit this update out. My 3GS is running so sweet “ fast and solid as a rock “ that I ‘m happy to hear others ‘ views on 3.1 for a while and await the public release. Of course, if any of you are running 3.1 we ‘d love to hear your thoughts and findings. 
When I was troubleshooting why my visual voicemail was not working after performing the tethering hack, confused as to why there was an MMS blocking SOC code on my account, the AT&T rep took it off in hopes it would solve the vms problem. It didn't, and I fixed it by setting the right vms server in the carrier settings, but it enabled me to use MMS. All I had to do was set the correct MMS server details in my carrier settings.
So, it doesn't appear that there is any technical reason for AT&T not enabling MMS yet. I think they are just making sure that their backhaul is able to support the onslaught after MMS is opened up to everyone. With the amount of use that iPhone cameras get, along with the higher quality one on the 3GS, there is sure to be quite a lot of media passing through the MMS servers when it is eventually opened to all. Most carriers have never had to worry about these levels of capacity issues because people simply didn't use their dumb phones to the extent that iPhone users do.
I think you're probably right about AT&T. Judging by iPhone users' usage levels for web browsing, video uploading, and even just general apps usage, their network is in for a deluge of traffic once MMS is fully turned on. Having said that, it's been two years since the original iPhone launched, a fair amount of prep / planning time.
Really hope they are able to handle it when it comes along, and we don't see big network fails all over the shop because of it.
"iPhone Software 3.1 will allow you to "Save a Copy" of video recordings that have been trimmed, rather than being forced over-write the original copy of the video" (AI)
"Another noteworthy enhancement is the ability to issue commands to the iPhone's new Voice Control feature over Bluetooth headsets." (AI)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/01/iph…
Both good additions – glad to see those.
Saving a copy of video recordings is extremely helpful – I'm so glad to see those also.
PatrickJ, yes – it'll be interesting to see how the server will do once MMS is online and up and running. It's hard to tell how it'll go, but it's no doubt that people wanted it.
It allows you to access iTunes U through cellular or wi-fi networks. That stuff is great if you're a student on the road.
I thought that came with 3.0.